Car Wash

Today was warm enough (upper 40s) to wash the salt off my car. Of course, "warm enough" is relative. A few weeks ago, when it was maybe 20 degrees outside, I saw the neighbor across the street washing off his car with a bucket of water and a washrag. I had to double-check the temperature.

There were a handful of other people at the car wash, all guys in their 20s and 30s, washing their vehicles too. And there were two older men standing outside the garage watching the young fools washing cars in winter.

I can't take my car through an automated wash because it has a soft top. I had to walk carefully as I walked around my car with the sprayer. The ground had a half-foot deep coating of ice, all lumpy and irregular. The snow on the roof overhead was melting quickly in the warmth of the day, and the water poured down like rain through open slots in the roof, so I got a little wet (not too wet, I was able to avoid most of the water).

Now my car is red again, with just a little bit of new salt. Much better than before, when it was a salty white car with hints of red underneath.